Breaking Bad - Season 5 (AMC) (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Fairly good episode.

Love the Police Commissioner's story about Gus...

"Somebody else completely. Right under my nose."

Wonder how much of that sunk into Hank.

As usual, I am a bit thrown off by something that happened.
Please let me know if I have this down correctly....





In the beginning of the episode we see Walter filling a vile with

salt and inserting it in a cigarette.



Did he also remove the original ricin vile and that was what

got pasted behind the electrical socket plate?

Did he then take the vile of salt and place it in Jesse's
apartment so that the robo-vacuum would pick it up, and thus,
get Walter off the hook?

 

[Tim Gerdes]

Great episode, apart from the ridiculousness with the defibrillator at the beginning. Such devices are designed to sense whether a shock is required and will not fire otherwise.
Apart from that really enjoying the shifting landscape of the season so far.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

 

[TravisR]

I'm assuming that keeping that ricin will be a massive error on Walt's part and is a key to how Walt ends up so messed up in the flashforward.

 

[Walter C]

Enjoyed the episode, focusing on Mike. It will be interesting to see, how sparing the woman's life, is gonna come back to bite him, now that he has to work for the ticking time bomb.

Thought the ending was pretty chilling.

 

[ScottH]

Originally Posted by TravisR /t/319056/breaking-bad-season-5-amc/60#post_3952656
I'm assuming that keeping that ricin will be a massive error on Walt's part and is a key to how Walt ends up so messed up in the flashforward.

Perhaps, but the fact that it's no longer in the cigarette makes it hard to imagine how it could circle back to him, even if Jesse were to find it. It's not out of the realm of possibility that Walt would have a "stash" of the stuff in a vial somewhere.

One thing I didn't quite get about that is the fact that Jesse was hit with all that guilt [COLOR= rgb(34, 34, 34)]after they "found" the cigarette, supposedly because he wanted to kill Walt for poisoning the kid, but shouldn't he have already thought it wasn't Walt because of the discovery that it was the lily of the valley plant that poisoned him?[/COLOR]

 

[Joe_H]

Perhaps, but the fact that it's no longer in the cigarette makes it hard to imagine how it could circle back to him, even if Jesse were to find it.  It's not out of the realm of possibility that Walt would have a "stash" of the stuff in a vial somewhere.
One thing I didn't quite get about that is the fact that Jesse was hit with all that guilt after they "found" the cigarette, supposedly because he wanted to kill Walt for poisoning the kid, but shouldn't he have already thought it wasn't Walt because of the discovery that it was the lily of the valley plant that poisoned him?

I think Saul is the weak link in the whole thing, since he knows about the plan and was involved along with Huell in taking the ricin cigarette. Anyway, I don't think it was that Jesse still thought it was Walt and that's why he had the breakdown, but that finding it just triggered how guilty he felt at that time. I mean, it only has been a couple days on the show since it happened. It's not unreasonable to me.

 

[joshEH]

That was some intense shit with Mike. Wow.
Great episode, mostly because it was about 90% Mike-oriented. The opening segment with the chicken-nugget dippin' sauces was also fantastic. Love how Mike schooled Hank and Gomie. So the magnet-heist leads to Mike losing his granddaughter's trust-fund? Classic Breaking Bad.
(And Walt reached a new low last night: framing DJ Roomba!)
I'm a bit unsure of the Lydia-character. She'll come into sharper focus soon, but after years of TV-watching, I tend to balk at new major characters introduced during a show's final stretch (although I think it would be fairly unrealistic not to see some of Fring's connections come into focus one way or another after his death). Hopefully her arc will be satisfying; if any show can do that, it's this one.
Refresh my memory: Do they still have the Laser Tag place, or was all of that money moved to the car wash? If not, I was thinking the Laser Tag place could be the new meth-lab.
I think I held my breath during the entire scene between Mike and Lydia -- just the little girl walking off with the nanny, saying "Love you!", and then Lydia starting to freak out about, "[She] has to find me, I can't just disappear!" Oh, this show.

 

[TravisR]

Refresh my memory: Do they still have the Laser Tag place, or was all of that money moved to the car wash? If not, I was thinking the Laser Tag place could be the new meth-lab.

No laser tag place. Saul and Walt went there under the guise of thinking about buying it but it was just a ruse to meet up with Jesse.

 

[joshEH]

Haha, true -- forgot about that. They hadn't actually bought the place yet, only cased it a couple of times. Anyhow, that would be the absolute worst place for a lab. If I'm the police, I would have to assume any fully-functional Laser Tag place still in existence would have to have some strong connections to meth-heads.
(Where can I get some "Franch"? Or at least a little Cajun Kick-Ass? Also: THE CRYSTAL SHIP!)
God bless this show for the slow focus on Hank, while his boss is talking about Gus being somebody completely different than he thought, and hiding right under his nose. I'm a sucker for good interrogation-scenes. Had a shiteating grin on my face as Mike exited the room. Vince Gilligan is a self-proclaimed Wiseguy-fanboy -- he must be having a ball writing Banks in such a cool role.
Plus, his socks/slippers-combo and drinking a thing of Ensure at the beginning was aces. Beer and Ensure, the cocktail of retirees. It's the little things this show does so well. Such as: the German CEO actually wearing a black turtleneck cracked me up to the point I may have missed a line of dialogue.
So, do we think he's being truthful, and that Lydia and (forgot his name) the opening suicide were simply rogue within Madrigal?
The Skyler/Walt scene at the end totally felt like rape. Skyler is repulsed by Walter, and show doesn't flinch over having us feel the ickiness about its protagonist. Aces.
This was cause-and-effect to the very end. How many deaths have continued to accumulate, and it all began with ONE decision made by ONE man? I love how taking out the laptop is actually what domino-effected the events of this entire episode.

 

[SamT]

Does Mike know that Walter killed his boss?

 

[TravisR]

Does Mike know that Walter killed his boss?

Yeah, as soon as he heard Gus was dead last episode, he figured it out but he put it aside so they could erase their connections to Gus.

 

[SamT]

Yeah, as soon as he heard Gus was dead last episode, he figured it out but he put it aside so they could erase their connections to Gus.

I asked this because this changes a lot depending on who knows what. And does Walter know that Mike knows?
I mean Mike is ok with that? All the people that worked with Gus before, accept that he was killed by Walter and not going to do anything? It makes no sense. They can kill these two in a second. And also why would Walter take such a risk to work with them?

 

[TravisR]

I asked this because this changes a lot depending on who knows what. And does Walter know that Mike knows?
I mean Mike is ok with that? All the people that worked with Gus before, accept that he was killed by Walter and not going to do anything? It makes no sense. They can kill these two in a second. And also why would Walter take such a risk to work with them?

Mike almost shot Walt last episode over Gus' death so they both know what each other knows. Mike isn't OK with any of it to the point that he turned down Walt's partnership offer (worth millions) this week but the DEA presumably seized the money that he made with Gus so Mike's backed into a corner and has to work with Walt again.
Out of Gus' employees, only Mike knows that Walt had anything to do with his death. All of Gus' goons that we ever saw in the lab with Walt are dead and Lydia didn't even know Walt's name. Dennis, the manager of the laundry who was mentioned a few times in this episode, has seen Walt but wouldn't have any clue about his involvement in the murder of Gus. I get the feeling that Dennis is going to become a problem since he can ID Walt as having worked in the lab for the DEA.

 

[SamT]

Mike almost shot Walt last episode over Gus' death so they both know what each other knows.

Wow, my memory is so bad I don't even remember that! This is why seeing them back to back is better for me!

 

[Greg_S_H]

Mike knows (or strongly suspects), but none of the rest of Gus's people know. They believe it was Salamanca taking revenge. Besides being out of the loop with his gunshot, Mike isn't one to talk it out. He was ready to deal with Walt himself, but he's got a fatally soft spot for Jesse and no real appetite for killing. He'll do it without a thought if necessary, but revenge for Gus doesn't meet the requirement at the moment. When the time comes, I hope it'll be loser of three games of Hungry Hungry Hippos eats a bullet.

 

[Dheiner]

No spoiler, just my thoughts: Mike is gonna turn on Walt. Walt will go on the run. The cancer resurfaces. Walt comes back to kill them all.

I am left wondering how does Walt meet "Ellsworth"??? (I'm always happy to see Jim Beaver.)

 

[TravisR]

I am left wondering how does Walt meet "Ellsworth"??? (I'm always happy to see Jim Beaver.)

He was only in one scene but Walt already bought a gun from him last season.

 

[joshEH]

Mike almost shot Walt last episode over Gus' death so they both know what each other knows. Mike isn't OK with any of it to the point that he turned down Walt's partnership offer (worth millions) this week but the DEA presumably seized the money that he made with Gus so Mike's backed into a corner and has to work with Walt again.
Out of Gus' employees, only Mike knows that Walt had anything to do with his death. All of Gus' goons that we ever saw in the lab with Walt are dead and Lydia didn't even know Walt's name. Dennis, the manager of the laundry who was mentioned a few times in this episode, has seen Walt but wouldn't have any clue about his involvement in the murder of Gus. I get the feeling that Dennis is going to become a problem since he can ID Walt as having worked in the lab for the DEA.

Agreed -- Dennis could become yet another loose-end to tie off very soon, here. Probably the entire point of this episode was that Mike needed to be pressed into the partnership. He's certainly not there out of loyalty to Walt, and even what feelings he has for Jesse aren't enough to get him to seriously consider it at this point. I'd suspect that his reason for being dragged back into the partnership will be yet another piece that explodes when Walt finally goes off.
Quite honestly, I fear for Mike's granddaughter now, and I didn't before this episode.
And there's still Madrigal to consider. They're now in the picture bigtime. When Walt first walked into the Pollos restaurant, we didn't even know who he was meeting. We certainly didn't suspect the sprawling enterprise, the laundry, the superlab, the sheer number of people involved.
Also, the state of Saul's character is perhaps the most depressing aspect of the show for me right now (well...besides Skyler's mental-condition). He is so ready for this to all be over, but Walt has essentially bullied him into moving forward. Watching Saul squirm and ask to make a contribution to the group-meeting was so out-of-character. And then for Walt to once again aggressively dress him down? Yikes. It's an inspired direction for the character, and a very effective way of illuminating how monstrous Walt has become.
Even worse is that I think Saul is rapidly becoming the weak-link in this fun bunch. Coupled with his knowledge of Brock's poisoning, Walt's money-laundering, his previous ties to Gus...as much I hope otherwise, I think Walt will arrange Saul's death by the end of this batch of episodes. And I think that will be the new (lowest?) low for Walt heading into the final eight. Praying I'm wrong, though.

 

[SamT]

I did not understand why Mike changed his mind with that episode.